Is it normal practice to pay for nursery meals when your child hasn’t started yet?

[BlueMaya]

My son should have started nursery in January, however couldn’t due to norovirus. However I keep getting invoices to pay for his nursery meals, £4 for a lunch. He had to miss his settling days because of his sickness, however I’m being chased for his meals he won’t be consuming! Is this normal practice?

This. We paid too. Not a big deal. It was stated in the contract.

Of course you have to pay. He had a start date for his settling in sessions that can't just be ignored because he was unwell.

If he'd started this week and was off sick next week it would be exactly the same and you'd still have to pay. The meals are part of the cost of his place you don't just get to not pay for them because he's not there.

My reading of this is that he has had a contractual start date, and he's been off sick from this date. So he hasn't actually physically been into the nursery and had his settling in days, but his contract has already started, and runs from the first day he was meant to attend. Therefore fees and food will be due from the first day that he was contracted to attend (which was earlier this month).

I think you think his contractual start date and the first day that he attends are the same. I don't think they are. I think he has already "started" and been off sick. He's a pupil of the nursery school already, even though he hasn't yet gone in.

You had a start date which you would have sent him in for, had he not had norovirus, so yes, you pay regardless of whether he is there or not. Best get used to it!

You know most of them charge for bank holidays when they aren't even open, right?!

So they think he is going to be there. They buy food for him. Why shouldn't they charge?

No they knew he wasn’t going to be there, he needs to have his settling in dates before he starts and that didn’t happen

The managers tone is probably off because your causing so many issues your son has just started and their already having to chase you for payments. Just because he's not physically there that is not their fault and his place still needs paying for

Agreed.

Look the fact is he has a place and was meant to be there so they are charging you. It's really not that difficult to comprehend and you run the risk of having no place if you continue to contest and moan about such simple elements of the contract you've signed.

Tone was off before the illness when there were no issues.

It doesn't matter if they knew he wasn't going to be there.

He's a pupil of the nursery school from the beginning of this term, and fees and food are due from that point.

He's been off sick on the days he was supposed to attend, but he's still passed his contractual start date. The contact starting doesn't depend on him actually physically turning up. It's the agreed date that the place is available for him - and that was earlier this month.

As I said in my earlier post, contractual start date and first day he physically attends are not the same thing. The contractual start day is the day that you agreed he would attend, which has passed. Him being sick doesn't change the start date of the contract. You probably need to give 4-6 weeks notice in writing to do that.

Have you called them and had a polite chat about it to see what's happening as it appears you think you have delayed a contractual start date and they just think he is a no show (sickness) as at his January start date.

Unfortuantely, I don't think it's about food. Do they accept 'free' hours for children? If so, the Government funding is so woefully inadequate, most nurseries have to try to make the shortfall up by charging for other things like food.

Yes spoke to them on 4 occasions requesting a start date

No?

Why 4 times?

Surely you called discuss a start date and then you called again to say he wouldn't be in because he's not well at which point you then discuss what date he would then have his settling in sessions?

It sounds as though this might not be the place for you TBH. It’s not worth the hassle if you can’t get on with them.

I think this is pretty normal though. The food/ staff budget for January was probably put together months ago based on your DS attending. The food was probably purchased already and it’s not like anyone else can eat your son’s. Furthermore as others have said many nurseries operate on a shoestring because the money paid for the “free” hours isn’t enough, so the income from food is often very important.

When my DC were at nursery I paid when we went on holiday, when they were ill or when they had appointments etc, including food. If you want the space kept for you and not given to someone else this seems normal.

But if you can’t work with them on something so minor I think you need to consider somewhere else. If there is nowhere better then for goodness sake don’t make their lives miserable by making relatively minor things a major issue.

Really?

Imagine you are cooking spag bol for 50. You have a catering size pack of onions, a catering size pack of mince, a catering size pack of tomatoes and a catering size pack of spaghetti that feeds 50.

If one person isn't in that day, you don't portion off 1/50th of the bulk packs and put it aside - you simply give everyone slightly bigger portions, or let the staff eat it, or throw the food away.
Equally if you have a person turn up for an extra session, you still cook the same amount of food and just give everyone a slightly smaller portion - because your portion control at volume is not that precise and small children eat different amounts anyway.

They also haven't costed out that your child's share of the meal costs exactly £4.
They've worked out food costs over a month or a year, and divided them out by some average number of children, and then rounded off.

My daughter went to a nursery where they were given a piece of fruit mid morning. My daughter doesn't eat fruit. So they didn't give her any. Should they have given me a discount for the cost of the uneaten fruit? Did it even cross my mind to ask for one or did I figure out it all evened out in the long term?

I suspect we are not getting the full story here. What I imagine is the case (feel free to correct me OP), is that her child is accessing funded hours, which the Nursery have enrolled him on as at whatever date in Jan he was agreed to start on, and the OP was in agreement that they would only need to pay for meals.

The child is not able to attend due to sickness, so the Nursery have left him as enrolled, and absent, and therefore is still billing for the meals as per the agreement.

The OP, on the other hand, seems to think her son is not currently enrolled, and she is being mistakenly (or intentionally) wrongly charged for his meals. However, if the child is not enrolled, then it's possible that they have given away his place or would have no reason not to do this.

So I suspect he is enrolled, marked as absent, and the agreement is that those on funded hours pay for meals for each contracted day whether they attend or are absent or the nursery is closed. Her copy of the contract would state this.

And the food which has been purchased already should be paid for by….?

It's not much money, just pay it to keep his place.

Your son HAS technically started, he has been absent, he is on the books, he has a place that they are keeping for him which includes a £4 charge for lunch.

The nursery has to charge someone for the space OP’s son wants to occupy. If not OP then the space (and meals) still need to be psid for. The payment compensates them for the opportunity cost of not offering it to someone else.